JAMMU, Jan 10: The Finance Minister Dr Haseeb Drabu today gave final touches to the budget 2018-19 to be presented by him in the state legislature tomorrow. This will be the 4th budget in a row to be presented by Dr Drabu.

The Finance Minister and his junior Minister Ajay Nanda were huddled with the team of officers from the Finance Department for the whole day today to give final shape to the budget document which was approved by the state cabinet last evening.

The Budget speech to be delivered by the Finance Minister in the legislature at 12 noon tomorrow will be telecast live on Doordarshan, Gulistan TV and Take One TV. It will be also broadcast live on 92.7 Big FM and Radio Mirchi 98.3 FM.

The Finance Minister said he would make every effort to address the genuine concerns of every section of the society, while finalizing the budget proposals. He said the budget proposals to be presented by him tomorrow would be discussed threadbare by the legislators adding that good and genuine suggestions of the legislators would be given due consideration to make next year’s budget representative to the urges and aspirations of the people.

Dr Drabu said before formulating budget proposals, he undertook an exhaustive pre-budget exercise by consulting all the stakeholders including trade, industry , transporters, intellectuals, academicians, journalists and progressive farmers of both Jammu and Kashmir divisions to get first hand appraisal of their demands and suggestions.

Dr Drabu complimented the team of officers of the Finance department for working with dedication and zeal to make the whole exercise of the budget preparation fruitful.

The crack team behind the state’s important fiscal exercise was working tirelessly for the past two months under the leadership of Principal Secretary Finance Navin Kumar Choudhary to prepare the Budget document.

SRINAGAR, Jan 10: National Conference (NC) president Dr Farooq Abdullah today expressed grave concern over the deteriorating security scenario in Kashmir and said that the PDP-BJP government had failed to wean away youth from isolation due to various ideological U-turns and contradictions.
Interacting with party workers at his residence here, Dr Abdullah also said that the shadow of fear that has been cast over the Panchayat election process is alarming and unfortunate and should be taken seri